The present invention relates to a treating system with corona discharge designed for improvement of surface property of an article by activating its surface.
Japanese Patent Publication (examined) No. 60-46133 discloses a technique related to a corona discharge treating apparatus. This treating apparatus with corona discharge is designed to subject to articles having a large number of surfaces to be treated, and in which a base electrode is installed on a transfer means, i.e., a conveyor belt; an article is mounted on this base electrode and a fibrous (brushlike) discharge electrode (counter electrode) is arranged thereabove.
What is characteristic of this prior art is that all surfaces of a complicated shape of article with many surfaces are concentrically subjected to discharge treatment together by a base electrode and a discharge electrode. Accordingly, in order to ensure the discharge treatment, it is necessary to perform the discharge treatment in such a manner that the article is stopped once at a position where the discharge electrode is located, and that then the article is moved as slow as possible. By such known treating apparatus, however, a problem exists in that the discharge treatment cannot be performed efficiently thereby not being adaptable for mass-production.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 759,434 filed previously by the applicant also discloses a technique related to the corona discharge. This apparatus comprises an excitation electrode and a counter electrode opposed to the excitation electrode, with a conductive and flexible contact piece provided on either one of them. This prior art is designed for stable and uniform treatment of an article having a complicated shape, but does not give a solution for efficient excecution of surface treatment by assembly line operation of products having a large number of surfaces to be treated.
Similarly, the Japanese Patent Application No. 59-237735 filed by the applicant discloses a method of performing a surface treatment in which high voltage is applied between an excitation electrode and a counter electrode, thereby forming a discharge region between these two electrodes, and, then, gas is supplied into this discharge region to treat the surfaces of the articles. This process intends to improve discharge treatment efficiency by supplying gas, but still does not teach the method of executing the surface treatment of products of complicated shape in large quantities.